


A Saturday in Spring

by Bhujerban



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, coffee shop AU, it's tropes all the way down baby!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25270012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bhujerban/pseuds/Bhujerban
Summary: Zelda always spent Saturdays doing what she liked best: following an extremely regimented schedule of relaxation. Yoga. Bubble bath. Brunch. Café. Dinner. Read. Sleep. But the Goddesses seemed to have other plans when they sent a handsome blue-eyed stranger to sit at her favourite table in the café.BoTW ZeLink. Coffee Shop AU. One shot.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 246





	A Saturday in Spring

**Author's Note:**

> A little while ago I took a poll on [my Tumblr](http://bhujerbanwrites.tumblr.com/) to see which ZeLink AU I should write next. The Coffee Shop AU was the resounding favourite—I should have expected that. Who doesn't love a coffee shop AU? So here's my offering in the name of the Goddess Hylia.
> 
> Thanks to [MuseLover1901](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuseLover1901/pseuds/MuseLover1901) and [dontwaitupxx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontwaitupxx/pseuds/dontwaitupxx) for beta reading this for me!

Saturday was Zelda’s day off.

After a long, stressful week at the firm, she liked to spend Saturdays unwinding. Sort of.

She allowed herself to sleep in until seven thirty and attend the eight o’clock yoga class. After yoga, she would go home and take a bubble bath. At ten thirty, she would have brunch with a friend (who was scheduled in at least two weeks in advance). If brunch didn’t signify a day off, she didn’t know what did.

After brunch, she would head back to her apartment and grab her floral printed weekend tote, which would hold her laptop, charger, agenda, wallet, sunscreen, leisure reading and first aid kit (different from her work tote, which was just like her weekend tote, but also had her work binder and came in navy blue) and make her way to Furosa’s Café and Bakery at the corner of Toruma and Palu. She would order a slice of fruitcake and a cup of Hateno Barley tea and take her seat at the table against the wall near the pastry display. She would spend the rest of her afternoon at the café, refilling her order of tea and finalizing proposals for client presentations on Monday.

Around five thirty, she would pack up her work, take the short, fifteen minute walk home and make herself dinner. She would have dinner, read for fun, and go to bed at promptly ten o’clock. Exactly the highly scheduled, relaxing day that she needed to decompress.

Unfortunately, on this mid-spring Saturday, the Goddesses seemed to have other plans.

Zelda had just come from a delightful brunch with Urbosa and was in a particularly good mood when she stepped into the café. Upon entry, her gaze locked on a figure sitting at _her_ table. A Hylian man in a blue shirt, with sandy blonde hair pulled into a messy ponytail sat facing the door. He had a book and a mug in front of him. She glanced around at the café and spotted another empty table close to the counter. It looked like she would have to wait him out.

She put in her order at the counter and sat down at the empty table. As she waited for her food, she pulled out her sleek laptop and powered it on. She glanced at the battery indicator at the corner of her screen and huffed with annoyance. There was a key reason she always sat at the table near the pastry display: it was the only table in the café with an outlet.

Zelda looked at the man sitting at her table again. He was reading. _Reading!_ He didn’t even need her table. She had half a mind to walk over and demand that he switch tables with her when he looked up from his book.

Even from across the (admittedly small) café, she could see how blue his eyes were. His brows were drawn in focus, probably a residual effect from reading, but his expression cleared as their eyes met. A flash of surprise flitted across his face when he caught her staring. Oh, she was _staring_!

She forced her eyes away and turned purposefully back to her screen, her ears burning with embarrassment.

“Order for Zelda?” The server behind the counter called out. “A barley tea and fruitcake for Zelda?”

She stood, acutely aware of the stranger’s eyes on her and made her way over to the pickup counter. She flashed the server a smile and muttered a quick thank you before retreating to her table. She snuck a glance at the stranger again, trying to assess how long he would be here.

He looked away right as she looked at him. His face was slightly pink as he stared at his book. The book was a thick volume and he was less than halfway through. It would take a while, if he was intending to finish it at the café. Though he might only intend to read a couple of chapters. It was difficult to tell.

From her vantage point, she couldn’t tell how much of his drink was left. Zelda watched as he picked up his cup and took a sip. Based on the way he tilted his cup, he likely had less than half of his drink left. Ideally, he would finish his drink and leave, but he might go back for a refill. It was also difficult to tell.

Her eyes wandered up to his face as she observed him. He was handsome, she supposed, with his strong jawline and high cheekbones. Or, he would be handsome, if he wasn’t a table stealing scoundrel!

As if sensing her thoughts, his gaze lifted from his book to meet hers again. Curse the _Goddesses,_ were they out to embarrass her today or what! Her eyes shot back to her screen. Why was he looking at her? Did he see her staring? She hoped that he didn’t get the wrong idea. She just wanted her table, that’s all.

 _Focus_ . He’d leave soon and she would be able to reclaim her table. She pulled up the proposal she was working on and, with perhaps more ferocity than strictly required, she took a bite of her cake. She scanned the document, scrolling with one hand and taking a sip from her mug with her other. As she read and made comments on the proposal, her eyes continued to drift over to the stranger at _her_ table.

She wondered what he was reading. The length of the book suggested a textbook, but he looked a bit old to be a student, so he could be reading for fun. It could just be a long fantasy novel; it could be _Gödel, Escher, Bach_ ; it could be _Infinite Jest_ . She cringed at the thought. Goddesses, she hoped he wasn’t one of those tools that read _Infinite Jest_ in public to show what an intellectual he was.

She turned back to her work right as he looked up from his book. In her peripheral vision, she could see him looking at her. She had to _relax_ and stop worrying about him. He kept looking in her direction, maybe he could sense her mentally urging him away. He shut his book and stood. Her pulse jumped at the prospect of him leaving. But no such luck, he simply approached the counter and put in another order. The café was small enough that she could hear him ask for a slice of fruitcake and a top up of his coffee.

 _Rats_ , that meant he wasn’t leaving. But instead of heading back to the table after he put in his order, he headed for the washroom at the back of the café.

Zelda was struck with a sudden need to peruse the pastry cabinet. She slid out of her seat and quickly made her way across the café. As she passed his table, she casually peered over at the book on his table. _Ecology: Evolution, Application, and Integration_. Huh, so maybe he was a student after all. She spotted a notebook open next to the textbook, the writing on the page was messy and haphazard. There were scribbles everywhere, with arrows connecting random chunks of text. Zelda could not even begin to decipher it.

The sound of a door clicking shut startled her out of her snooping. Abruptly, she turned to face the pastry display and studied the carrot cake intently. She felt the stranger pass by behind her as he made his way to the pickup counter. Surreptitiously, she watched as he leaned his hip against the counter. He was shorter than she’d originally thought, but he looked strong. She could see the definition of his pectoral muscles against his t-shirt and the curve of his biceps. He had nice, toned forearms. She wondered what he did to get so fit.

“Order for Link?” The server called out from behind the counter, “A fruitcake and coffee for Link?”

He collected his food and made his way back to his table.

The server spotted Zelda by the pastry cabinet and asked, “Did you want something from the cabinet?”

Zelda jolted back, “Oh, uh, no.” She stepped away from the display, “No, I thought I did but now on second thought I don’t think I do. Well, maybe later, I still have some fruitcake left and—” She waved awkwardly at the server, “Anyways, I’m going back to my table now, bye.”

She shot a glance back over her shoulder at the stranger at her table and their eyes met. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle with amusement. She felt her cheeks flush and whipped her head forward. _How embarrassing!_

Sitting back down at her (temporary) table, she took a gulp of her (now only kind of warm) tea and got back to work. Between sips of tea and bites of fruitcake, she managed to get through half of the proposal. She worked for another hour before returning to the counter for another cup of barley tea. The stranger at her table did not leave.

They continued to trade looks from across the café. She wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but _she_ was looking to see if he was leaving. She certainly was not looking to admire his strong shoulders or his blue eyes.

By early afternoon, her laptop battery indicator turned red. This laptop didn’t have the best battery life and she _really_ needed to charge. From the looks of it, the stranger at her table was not leaving, so she would have to ask to switch tables with him or…share.

Swallowing her annoyance, putting on her friendliest face, and pretending that she hadn’t been looking at him for the last few hours, she walked over to him. At the sound of her approach, he glanced up. He looked a bit surprised.

“Hi,” she said, “I’m Zelda.”

“Hi Zelda,” he responded. The warmth and familiarity in his tone surprised her, but it felt right somehow.

“So here’s the thing,” she forged onward, “the table you’re sitting at is the only one with an outlet in this café.”

“Oh.” He seemed disappointed.

“My laptop is about to die, and I really need to plug in.” She gave what she hoped was her most charming smile, “Do you mind if we switch tables? My things are just over there.”

“I uh…” He looked down at his stuff spread across the table, his textbook and notebook were open in front of him and he had various sticky notes plastered on the surface of the table.

Zelda gave a little huff of annoyance. “I mean, we could also share if you don’t mind.”

His expression brightened at this and he pulled his books closer to himself so that the spot at the table across from him was cleared. “Sure.”

“Thank you,” she told him primly, “I’ll just go fetch my bag.”

He gave her a small smile and continued to clear half of the table for her. _Okay, so sharing a table wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world_ , she thought as she slid her agenda into her bag. It wasn’t like they would have to speak to each other, he seemed to have his own work to do. They were just sharing a table.

She slid into the chair across from him as he was putting some of his pens away. A blue pin on his bag caught her attention.

“Wait is that—?” She leaned forward for a better look.

He froze when she placed her hand on his wrist. She pulled her hands back hastily, momentarily derailed from her original thought by the tingle of energy that seemed to pass between them. _Weird_.

“What?” By the way he was staring at her hand, he seemed to feel it too.

She blinked away her moment of madness and gestured to his bag. “Is that a pin from ‘The Champions’?”

“Oh!” His eyes alighted with excitement, “Yeah, I love their stuff. Are you a fan too?”

Her heart gave a double thump of excitement. “Am I a fan?” She leaned forward excitedly, “I love them! I grew up with the lead singer—she’s basically my big sister.”

His eyes widened, “You know Urbosa?”

“Yes!” She pulled out her phone to show him the calendar, “I just had brunch with her.”

He glanced at her phone, “Woah, I guess it’s a small world.”

“Small world?”

“Yeah, Mipha and I are childhood friends. I’ve been following the band since the beginning.”

“Huh,” she studied his face, trying to remember if she’d ever met him before, “sorry, what’s your name?”

“Link,” he said, his eyes fixed on hers. “I’m Link.”

His name, like the rest of him, was familiar. But she was sure they’d never met before—she never forgot a face. Especially one with such remarkable eyes. From this close up, she could see the flecks of green that mix into the blues. His pupils were slightly dilated, as they studied her in return. His cheeks were a little flushed, his nose straight and aristocratic, and his lips—

“Order for Kilton!” the server called out from the counter, “I have an espresso shot and a slice of Monster Cake for Kilton!”

Zelda snapped back into her seat and immediately felt her entire face heat up. _What was that?_ Thankfully Link seemed equally as flustered, as he rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand. An awkward silence fell over them.

She busied herself by plugging in her laptop and signing back in. She considered just diving back into her work, but it felt wrong to just end the conversation as it was.

She took a sip from her (now cold) mug of tea. “So Link, what’s with the ecology textbook?” She asked, desperate for something to say.

“Oh,” he looked down at his textbook and flipped through a few pages. “I’ve been thinking about applying to a Master’s program to do some conservation ecology. But I graduated a couple of years ago so I wanted to see if I could still keep up with the material. I think I’m doing okay but I—wait. How did you know this was an ecology textbook?”

“I happened to see earlier.” She waved her hand as if to dispel his question. “Let’s stay on topic.”

He raised an eyebrow at her but made no comment.

“So where do you want to go to grad school?” she asked pointedly.

With a shrug he said, “Not sure. I’m going to apply to Hyrule University, but it’s probably a long shot, so I’ll probably end up at the University of Castle Town or Vah Ruta University.”

“Well there’s no shame in that. Hyrule University is incredibly competitive to get into. UCT and VRU are great schools too,” she told him.

“Sounds like someone has some personal experience. Did you go to UCT?”

“Oh no, I went to Hyrule University.”

There was a beat as he studied her face, trying to determine if she was joking. She just tilted her head slightly.

“You’re serious.” His eyes roved her face and she cracked, her laughter bubbling out of her.

“Yes,” she said, smiling as she reached across the table to pat his arm, “but it’s not a big deal, I swear. Where you get your degree is a lot less important than what you do with it after.”

He fixed her with an inquisitive look, the blues of his eyes seemed iridescent in the warm café lighting. Her heart raced.

“So what do you do, Miss Zelda?” he asked, “It feels like I’m being interrogated here. What are _you_ working on?”

“Just Zelda is fine,” she responded. “I’m just finishing up a proposal for work. I like doing my final reads at Furosa’s because the change of setting helps me see things in a new way.”

“Work? On a Saturday? Shouldn’t you be relaxing?”

“This _is_ relaxing!” she insisted. “I can take my time with it and there are no anxious engineers hovering over my shoulders.”

“If that's your idea of relaxing, I’d hate to know what you do for fun.”

“I have fun!” Zelda scowled at him, “I read! I cook! I…I take bubble baths!”

Link held his hands up, “My goodness, she reads, she cooks, and she bathes. Watch out, we’ve got a wild one here.”

She sputtered a little at his audacity before saying. “Well you’re one to speak, you’re reading a textbook on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.”

“I’m an outdoor guide, so I spend most of my days outside and when I’m not working, my volunteer firefighting gig takes up a ton of my time. I’m usually too fried to read during the week,” he told her without a hint of bragging.

Her mouth clicked shut. Whatever she thought he was going to say, it wasn’t that. _Goddesses_ , who was this man? Some sort of superhero? He gave her an innocent smile.

“Well, okay. I suppose that’s understandable,” she conceded.

There was a moment of silence. She glanced back at the proposal, but for once, the words held no interest.

“So…” He drew the word out for a few syllables. “What do you actually do in your free time? Do you hang out with your boyfriend or…?” He let his sentence trail off as he rubbed at a coffee stain on the table.

Zelda felt her ears flush red. This meant what she thought it meant right?

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said. “I work crazy hours and don’t really go out. Where would I even meet someone?”

“A café, maybe?” Link muttered, still not looking at her, a flush creeping down his neck.

“Oh,” she blinked, “That’s very forward of you.”

He glanced at her anxiously. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I just—”

“I mean, we hardly know each other. We’ve been chatting for a little while, but I don’t know what your favourite food is or if you have siblings—I don’t even know your last name!”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. Please forget I said anything, this is extremely embarrassing. I promise I don’t usually do this.”

“I didn’t say I was opposed to it,” she interjected.

He froze. “What?”

“My favourite food is fruitcake, I am an only child, and my last name is Bosphoramus,” she told him.

It was his turn to blink at her. They looked at each other for a moment before she gestured towards him. That seemed to snap him into action.

“Right!” Link sat up a bit straighter. “I don’t have a favourite food because I enjoy all foods, I have a younger sister, and my last name is Forester.”

“Good. Now that we have a baseline of knowledge about one another. We can proceed.”

“Proceed with…?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Courting?”

He barked a laugh, “Do people still call it that?”

“Well it’s not _dating_ since there hasn’t been a date yet.”

Link’s responding grin made her feel all weird and tingly.

“We should fix that immediately,” he said. “How about we go get a drink and grab an early dinner?”

She checked the clock on her computer. It’s barely four o’clock and she had gotten very little work done all day. The thought of disrupting her meticulously scheduled day scandalized her. And yet…

“Alright,” she said.

* * *

The next Saturday, Zelda slept in until seven thirty and went to yoga at eight. She took a bubble bath after yoga and at ten thirty, she had brunch with Impa and Purah (who had been scheduled in two weeks in advance). After brunch, she picked up her floral printed weekend tote from her apartment and made her way to Furosa’s Café and Bakery at the corner of Toruma and Palu.

When she entered the bakery, her gaze locked on a figure sitting at her table against the wall near the pastry display. As she made her way to the table, the man at the table looked up.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” Link responded.

He pushed a cup of Hateno Barley tea and a slice of fruitcake across the table to her. He smiled at her and she smiled right back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, I appreciate your feedback immensely.  
> [ You can also come say hi on Tumblr, I'm BhujerbanWrites!](https://bhujerbanwrites.tumblr.com/)


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